Chapter 36: Baby, I Miss You So Much

Chapter 36: Baby, I Miss You So Much

Lu Hechi wanted to look away, but it was already too late.

The two of them locked eyes across the table for a few seconds.

Chen Jiadong didn't look away, and his face gave nothing away.

Their stares were locked in a silent standoff, like whoever blinked first would lose.

Lu Hechi had wanted to avoid the eye contact, but the stare sparked his competitive side, so he kept up the silent battle across the table.

After about thirty seconds, the staffer sitting between them got up, probably to hit the restroom.

Chen Jiadong casually looked away and turned back to keep chatting with Song Jiyao next to him.

Lu Hechi quickly ducked his head and took a sip of water.

As he set the cup down, he caught Song Jiyao looking at him out of the corner of his eye, with a faint, barely-there smirk.

Lu Hechi acted like he didn't see it.

He unlocked his phone and started bugging Shen Lanxue.

"Hey bro, what's Little Star up to?"

Shen Lanxue: "[Image]"

Lu Hechi tapped on it to open it.

In the riding arena, Shen Yixing was in his riding gear, sitting on a small white pony.

A middle-aged man was leading the pony beside him.

"Damn, my son is handsome!"

After sending that, Lu Hechi snuck a glance at the two guys and saw they were still huddled together talking.

Do they really have that much to talk about?

Lu Hechi wouldn't admit he was jealous.

He typed out another message to Shen Lanxue.

"Babe, I miss you so much."

A few seconds later, Shen Lanxue sent him another photo of their son.

Lu Hechi thought, "I didn't ask for a photo—does Shen Lanxue think I meant Little Star when I said baby?"

Lu Hechi kept typing.

"Oppa, I miss you so much."

Almost a full minute went by.

Then Shen Lanxue texted back.

"Miss you too."

Lu Hechi tightened his grip on his phone, and when he glanced at the lovey-dovey pair again, he suddenly felt nothing at all.

"..."

Ji Ziyang had spent the whole dinner working the room. When he was done, he glanced to the side.

He saw Lu Hechi clutching his phone, grinning like a lovesick fool.

His phone had no privacy screen, so the chat history was plain as day.

Ji Ziyang had initially figured the contact with the snowflake emoji was Lu Hechi's new fling.

But as Lu Hechi showed up less and less at the company, Ji Ziyang did some digging and found out that Lu Hechi and Shen Lanxue were getting along better.

What he couldn't figure out was why the guy he once couldn't stand to look at—whose divorce papers were already drawn up—had suddenly disappeared from the picture.

Ji Ziyang couldn't wrap his head around it.

What was even more baffling was how much Lu Hechi's personality had changed.

He was half-tempted to send the guy to the hospital for a brain scan, to check if someone had taken over his body.

"Hechi, you about done? Let's head back to the hotel together."

Ji Ziyang said softly to get his attention.

Lu Hechi put down his phone and saw that several staffers had already left, while a bunch of others were still drinking, faces flushed, playing drinking games.

Lu Hechi thought for a second, then said, "You go ahead. I'll take a walk outside, get some air."

The producer, a guy in his forties, waved his hand and said, "Alright, that's enough drinking. Filming starts bright and early tomorrow—everyone up early!"

The ones who'd been planning to keep drinking dropped the idea.

Everyone scattered.

Lu Hechi didn't go back to the hotel. Instead, he strolled slowly along the lake.

The sky was completely dark now. A few scattered lights on the far shore dragged long, thin ribbons of light across the water.

He walked for a few minutes before hearing footsteps behind him.

Lu Hechi paused but didn't turn. The footsteps kept following at a steady distance, not seeming to want to catch up.

He kept walking until the lights ahead got brighter and thumping music filled the air—a bunch of middle-aged women were doing square dancing.

The wind blew off the water, carrying the night's chill.

When he reached a viewing platform, Lu Hechi leaned his arms on the railing and turned to look back.

Chen Jiadong had stopped too. With one hand in his pocket, he strolled over, stood next to Lu Hechi, and rested his hands on the railing, staring out at the lake.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Chen Jiadong remarked.

Lu Hechi followed his gaze. The night was pitch black, the lake an inky void, with lights scattered across it like they were trying to pull you in.

How could anyone call that beautiful?

He tilted his head to look at Chen Jiadong, "Why did you choose to become an actor?"

"Why?" Chen Jiadong repeated the question, then rested both hands on the railing, saying matter-of-factly, "The money's good."

"I'm only twenty-five. Other people are just starting to earn after graduation, and I've already bought a house. Even if I can't stack up against you trust-fund types, I'm pretty badass too, right?"

"So what about you and Song Jiyao..." Lu Hechi hesitated, then asked out loud, "Do you like him?"

Chen Jiadong clearly hadn't expected that question and couldn't help but laugh.

"Lu Hechi, you really did lose your memory," Chen Jiadong said. "I'm a kept man. How could a kept man ever fall for his owner?"

"Two people who aren't on equal footing don't have the right to talk about liking someone."

Lu Hechi hadn't expected that response.

For some reason, from the very first time they met, he'd noticed Chen Jiadong always putting himself down around him.

He frowned despite himself, "Then, setting that aside — do you like him?"

Chen Jiadong didn't hesitate at all.

"No, I don't."

Chen Jiadong turned to look at him, eyes locked on his, "Do you really have no memory at all?"

Lu Hechi nodded, "Yeah, I don't even remember the Lu family coming to get me."

Chen Jiadong hadn't expected him to have genuinely lost his memory — completely wiping out all the messy stuff that came after.

This is way too much like something out of a novel.

He couldn't help chuckling, "Hey, what if you time-traveled from your senior year of high school to the future, and it's not actually car-accident amnesia at all?"

Lu Hechi: "When you put it that way, it doesn't seem wrong either."

"Amnesia and time travel don't seem all that different."

"There is a difference. How could there not be?" Chen Jiadong took his hands off the railing and turned fully to face him, "If you were the Lu Hechi from high school, then I'd be friends with him."

Lu Hechi was a bit confused.

"?" Lu Hechi asked him, "What do you mean? Are you willing to make up with me?"

Chen Jiadong said to him, "No, it's because I don't seem to have any conflict with the eighteen-year-old Lu Hechi."

"So, the eighteen-year-old Lu Hechi is my friend, but the twenty-five-year-old Lu Hechi is not."

Lu Hechi was getting dizzy trying to follow him.

A sharp pain surged through the back of his head again, more intense than last time, making him lose his balance for a moment and drop to one knee on the ground to support himself.

Chen Jiadong immediately stepped forward to steady him, his gaze full of concern, "What's wrong with you?"